Reasons for Designation
The North York Moors is an area which has an abundance of prehistoric remains,
particularly within moorland landscapes where they have not been disturbed by
more recent agricultural activity. The remains are evidence for the widespread
exploitation of these uplands throughout prehistory. Many remains date from
the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC) and relate to diverse activities, funerary and
ritual practice as well as agriculture and settlement. For the end of the
first millennium BC the range of evidence is more restricted. Settlement at
this time was concentrated in the lowland areas surrounding the moors,
although some settlement was located on the periphery and in the valleys.
These late prehistoric settlement sites on the higher ground are of two types:
those consisting of a small number of unenclosed hut circles and those found
within small square or sub-rectangular enclosures. Some examples of the former
are thought to date from the Bronze Age, but excavation of others and of a few
of the enclosed settlements suggests that they were occupied during the Iron
Age to the Romano-British period (c.700 BC-AD 400). A number of late
prehistoric enclosed settlements on the North York Moors survive as
upstanding monuments and these are between 0.1ha and 0.5ha in area. The
enclosing earthworks are usually slight and consist of a ditch with an
internal bank, but examples are known with an internal and external bank and
with an internal ditch or no ditch at all. They are square or sub-rectangular
in shape and often have at least two rounded corners, giving a characteristic
D-shape. Few of these enclosed settlements have been subject to systematic
excavation but examples which have been excavated have presented evidence of
settlement, including the presence of buildings. Some of the enclosures may
also have had a function as stock enclosures. Enclosed settlements are a
distinctive feature of the late prehistory of the North York Moors and are
important in illustrating the variety of enclosed settlement types which
developed in many areas of Britain at this time. Examples where a substantial
proportion of the enclosed settlement survives are considered to be nationally
important.
Regular aggregate field systems date from the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC) to
the end of the fifth century AD. They usually cover areas of up to 100ha and
comprise a discrete block of fields orientated in roughly the same direction,
with the field boundaries laid out along two axes set at right angles to one
another. Individual fields generally fall within the 0.1ha-3.2ha range and can
be square, rectangular, long and narrow, triangular or polygonal in shape. The
field boundaries can take various forms, including drystone walls or reaves,
orthostats, earth and rubble banks, pit alignments, ditches, fences and
lynchets and can follow straight or sinuous courses. Component features common
to most systems include entrances and trackways. The settlements or farmsteads
from which people utilised the fields over the years have been identified in
some cases and these are usually situated close to or within the field system.
The development of field systems is seen as a response to the competition for
land which began during the later prehistoric period. The majority are thought
mainly to have been used for crop production, evidenced by the common
occurrence of lynchets resulting from frequent ploughing, although rotation
may also have been practised in a mixed farming economy. Regular aggregate
field systems occur widely and have been recorded in south western and south
eastern England, East Anglia, Cheshire, Cumbria, Nottinghamshire, North and
South Yorkshire and Durham. They represent a coherent economic unit often
utilised for long periods of time and can thus provide important information
about developments in agricultural practice in a particular location and
broader patterns of social, cultural and environmental change over several
centuries. Those which survive well or can be linked positively to associated
settlements are considered to merit protection.
The settlement and field system on Borrowby Moor are in an excellent state of
preservation. The archaeological deposits survive intact and significant
information about the date and form of construction will be preserved.
Important evidence for the nature and duration of the occupation will survive
within the enclosed area. Valuable evidence for environment and economy will
be preserved in the field system's ditches and especially within the
waterlogged floor area of the principal dwelling. Evidence for earlier land
use will also survive beneath the enclosure banks.
The enclosed settlement and field system are situated within a concentration
of late prehistoric and native Roman period settlement which is unparalleled
in this region. The area also includes many earlier monuments. Monument
groupings such as these offer important scope for the study of landscape
development through time, late prehistoric settlement patterns and continuity
into the Roman period.
Details
The monument includes an enclosed settlement and associated field system
situated at the top of a steep sided stream gully on the north edge of the
North York Moors.
The settlement is visible as a sub-rectangular embanked enclosure measuring up
to 35m east to west and 45m north to south. The enclosing earthen banks are 2m
wide and stand up to 0.7m high, except on the east side near the top of the
steep slope of the stream gully where they are almost level. In the north side
there is an entrance 3m wide. Opposite the entrance at the south end of the
enclosure there is a stone hut circle which would have been the principal
dwelling of the farmstead. The hut circle survives as a low stony bank around
a paved circular floor area which is 8m in diameter. The paving is no longer
visible since the floor area is lower than the ground level within the main
area of the enclosure and is permanently waterlogged and buried in peat
deposits. The hut circle is surrounded by an annexe defined by earth and stone
banks up to 3m wide which stand up to 1.6m high above the level of the paved
floor area and up to 1m above the exterior ground level. There is an entrance
to the annexe in the north side, opposite the entrance to the main enclosure.
Two further hut circles lie within the main enclosure towards its north west
corner and are visible as low penannular earthen banks up to 2m wide and
standing up to 0.6m high. The enclosure originally had subdivisions and other
internal features but these are visible now only as fragmentary low earthen
banks.
Adjoining the south side of the main enclosure is a subsidiary enclosure. It
is square with rounded corners and measures 16m across, with a 2m wide
entrance in the west side. The edges are defined by earthen banks up to 3m
wide and standing up to 0.8m high and there are three smaller embanked
enclosures 10m-13m in length and 5m-6m wide appended to the south and east
sides and to the west side to the north of the entrance. These four enclosures
would have been cultivation plots and paddocks or yards for ancillary
activities.
To the north of the settlement there is a regular aggregate field system which
is defined by a series of low earthen banks up to 2m wide. This consists of
three sub-rectangular fields laid out on either side of a hollow way which
runs in a south west to north east direction along the west edge of the
farmstead. Two fields lie to the east of the hollow way and extend for 30m as
far as the top of the steep slope into the stream gully. The southern one has
an entrance in the north west corner and measures 25m north to south. Its
north side is marked by a ditch 2m wide and 0.4m deep and a bank 2m wide and
standing up to 0.6m high. At its west end this bank turns to the north to mark
the west edge of the northern field, which measures 20m north to south. One
field is visible to the west of the hollow way and it lies opposite the more
northerly of the eastern fields. It is square and measures 20m across, and is
bounded by a bank on its south and west sides. No northern boundaries are
visible to the more northerly fields. The hollow way is up to 3m wide and 1.5m
deep and continues in a south westerly direction beyond the settlement for 70m
and then continues as far as the boundary wall marking the edge of Borrowby
Moor as a shallow depression.
This late prehistoric settlement and field system lie in an area where there
are other late prehistoric and Roman period settlements as well as many other
earlier monuments dating to the prehistoric period.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
